Hats with brims or visors are widely worn by golfers, tennis players, baseball players, hunters and farm workers. Those hats generally fit over the upper portion of the head, and the lower edge of the hat extends down in proximity to the tops of the ears. Those hats may have an open crown area to provide ventilation to the upper head portion of the intended user. Those hats normally have a visor attached to the hat's lower forward edge. The visor normally extends forward about two and one-half to four inches, with three inches being about average. The visor has a general width of about six to eight inches, with seven inches being about average. The construction of the visor is usually one or more layers of cloth juxtaposed and sewn about a stiffening material such as cardboard. The cardboard provides rigidity to the visor.
The purpose of the visor is to protect the face of the user against excessive sunlight that can cause sunburn and may harm the eyes. While the normal visor generally provides acceptable protection against various elements of nature, under certain circumstances the ordinary visor is inadequate to provide a desired degree of protection. In the morning or late in the day when the sun is low in the sky, ordinary visors do not provide the desired amount of shade to protect the eyes.
Sunburn to the general head and face of humans resulting from high intensity sunlight is well known. The sun's harmful ultraviolet rays cause painful sunburn even on cloudy days. Guarding against painful sunburn and skin cancer caused by those harmful rays has become a major heath concern. Appropriate clothing is necessary to shield or shade the head and upper body when in direct sunlight or during cloudy sky periods. That clothing may include suitable protective garments and hats.
Hats with visors, in general, will shade the crown of the head, and the visor will provide some relief to the direct sunlight on the eyes of the intended user. The hat will function as intended depending on the position of the sun relative to the user. The user of any hat will find it necessary to constantly adjust the visor of the hat to accommodate the varying positions of the sun during the day. The user may have difficulty in reducing sun exposure because, to be effective throughout the day, the hat must extend over the eyes and severely limit the user's vision.
The art of adjustable-visor hats yields many examples. An example is U.S. Pat. No. 566,326 to Kirshner. Kirshner discloses a hat that has a variable-length visor. That variable-length visor achieves shading or protection for the eyes as the sun occupies progressively lower azimuthal angles in the sky. That manner of protection is limited to the times of day when the sun is nearly or directly overhead. That type of protection does nothing when the sun is on the horizon during the periods of sunrise or sunset.
U.S. Pat. No. 630,707 to Jacobson discloses a hat with a permanently hinged visor. The visor portion is a screen-type material that allows the user to see through the screen in the direction of travel, thereby necessarily passing sunlight. That particular type of hat-visor combination serves to protect the user from wind, dust and the like, while the user is moving rapidly forward, but does not protect the user from excessive sunlight.
U.S. Pat. No. 716,258 to Maass discloses a hat with a variable-length visor attached to the main visor by a plurality of nuts and bolts. Those bolts, when loosened, freely slide in provided guide slots, enabling the variable-length visor to be extended, thereby providing required protection from the sun. When a suitable position of the visor is obtained, the nuts are tightened to secure the visor in place.
U.S. Pat. No. 911,432 to Pachner discloses a hat with a transparent visor. Using this hat requires rotating the visor from a storage place inside the hat to a position extending outward from the front portion of the hat. The hat also has a holding flap attached to its front portion. The holding flap has a securing snap on its forward edge that will secure the transparent visor in a position above the eyes of the user. When the snap is not in use, the transparent visor adjusts to its lowest position over the eyes of the user, thereby greatly reducing the visibility of the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,006 to Dawson discloses a hat with a rigid primary visor and a removable, extendible secondary visor. A first set of securing snaps will hold the secondary visor in place adjacent to the primary visor. The secondary visor is extended by unsnapping the visor from the first set of snaps, moving the visor to a second, extended position, and then attaching the visor to a second set of securing snaps. This patent, similar to the Kirshner patent discussed above, merely extends the length of the visor in an attempt to solve the problem of protecting the eyes from excessive sunlight.